If I knew that the homeland had no need of me, I would dip my sword in my heart, and dying, I would write these words with my red blood, that the red letters might stand here as freedom’s rays of dawn.

Magyar freedom was born today, because the shackles have fallen from the press today ... or is there anyone so naive as to imagine that any nation can have freedom without a free press?

Hungarian freedom, hail to you on your day of birth! I greet you first, who have prayed and fought for you, I greet you with a joy as high as my pain was deep while we were deprived of you!

O our freedom, dear-dear newborn, may you have a long life on this earth, may you live as long as Magyars live; should the last son of our nation die, cast yourself over him like a funeral pall... and if you die sooner, drag with you into the grave the entire nation, because living on without you would mean disgrace, while dying with you will be glory!

Petőfi Sándor wrote many poems about freedom and freeing the nation from Austrian rule. The most famous of these is the ”Nemzeti dal”, recited by Hungarians every March 15th (see the Classic elsewhere in this issue). His name has become synonymous with the Revolution of 1848-49. He badly wanted to join the fighting, but felt that his wife’s pregnancy had precedence over his dedication to the fight for freedom. (He recorded his dilemma in a poem entitled ”Egész világ a harczmezőn”). He eventually did join General Bem’s forces, and was last seen at the Battle of Segesvár on July 31st, 1849. His body was never found.